Chapter Seven: Gorgosuchus
Gorgon
Species: Gorgosuchus
Hybrid Genome: Kaprosuchus base, Gorgosaurus spliced in.
Size: 18 feet long, 4.5 feet tall at the shoulder, 1 ton.
Diet: Carnivore.
Claire heard more so than saw Owen coming. She turned away from the thick glass to look over her shoulder as she heard the echoes of his boots make their way over to her. The Raptor Trainer flashed her a smile and a nod as he got closer, which she returned.
"Boss," he greeted cheerily.
She rolled her eyes. "That's Miss Dearing to you, Mr. Grady."
"Owen," he countered playfully. Claire resisted the urge to roll her eyes again and turned to face the glass as Owen stopped beside her. His gaze flickered from her to the habitat behind the glass, studying the indoor jungle and rocky ledges along the walls. "So what am I here to look at?"
"Officially, you're here to give the habitats in our new Hybrid Dome a security check," she told him, her tone all business. "You were right about the Indominus Paddock and Masrani really wanted your opinion on this."
Owen raised an eyebrow, forgoing his playful tone at the reminder. "You didn't put another raptor hybrid in here, did you?"
Claire shook her head. "Absolutely not. Anything with raptor DNA in its genome has to go through Masrani, myself, and you before the labs will even make the eggs."
"That's a load off my mind," he breathed out, studying the glass wall curiously. It was several inches thick, and a rap of his knuckles told him it was seriously tough material. "Mind telling me what we're keeping in here, then?"
Claire lifted her hand to an earpiece and pressed on a button for a moment before speaking. "Is she ready?" There was a pause, and then she spoke again. "Let her back into the paddock, please."
She looked at Owen as he asked a silent question. "She was due for a visual checkup by Dr. Gerry today. I asked them to just hold her in the holding pen for a few minutes until you got here. She's not shy, exactly, but she can hide if she wants to. Ah, here she comes."
Claire pointed at the glass and Owen's gaze followed the gesture until he was focused on a rock near the back of the paddock. A cleverly hidden hatch lifted up, providing an opening for the animal to pass through.
Owen watched as a large, quadrupedal reptile stalked out of the holding pen, shaking her massive head and snorting as though annoyed by something. She was probably fed up with the vets looking at her for so long. He hoped they had given her something to chew on to distract her.
The irritated animal was built like a big cat, with a lithe, muscular body, long legs, and a powerful tail. The scales were a mixture of dark blues and pale grays on most of the body, but from the top of the head to the base of the tail were thick, powerful scutes not unlike those of a crocodile's. They sported a reddish brown color, and that same color was retained all along the top of the body to the very tip of the tail. At the feet were short, powerful claws, ideal for gripping or climbing the rocky walls of her habitat.
Owen was drawn to the head last of all and here he lingered the most. The hybrid's skull was huge and bore massive muscles and teeth. Thick, powerful fangs jutted outside of its jaw just like those of a saltwater crocodile, but the musculature and general jaw structure were too different to be purely crocodilian. His first thought as soon as he saw the head was that this animal had the genes from some species of predatory dinosaur. In fact, the teeth were a dead giveaway.
"She's got Rex DNA?" He queried, understanding the need for the powerful glass walls as soon as the words left his mouth.
"Close," Claire admitted. "Gorgosaurus. They were northern cousins of T-Rex, but physically they're pretty similar."
The hybrid stalked with stealthy grace away from the wall and through the undergrowth, approaching a small pool near the front of the habitat. Owen watched as she sniffed the water for a few moments before crouching to drink, giving him a good view of the immensely muscular neck that no doubt supported those powerful jaws. "So what name did Wu give the species?"
"Gorgosuchus," was the answer Claire gave him. She folded her arms over each other and watched the drinking animal. "Kaprosuchus was the base genome. Wu spliced in Gorgosaurus genes, but that was more or less it. As hybrids go, I'm told she didn't require a lot of genetic modifications. She's a lot like her Kaprosuchus cousins, although she's more aggressive. And her jaw strength is, pound for pound, almost as strong as Rexy's."
Owen whistled appreciatively, but he could believe it. The teeth in the hybrid's mouth were built like railroad spikes, perfectly designed to perforate flesh and shatter bones. Just a glance at the massive muscles supporting that huge mouth was enough to convince him that if she bit onto something, there would be no getting it back.
"Did they get a measurement of her bite force?"
Claire nodded. "Six point seven thousand pounds of force per square inch. Between the crocodile and tyrannosaur jaws, she's got a bite force more powerful than either of species that make up her genome."
More than three tons of power, then. That would shatter just about anything she got her teeth into, Owen realized.
He watched as the Gorgosuchus lifted her head from the pool and shifted her eyes to the glass wall. Her long tail flicked lazily as she centered on Owen and Claire, then rose back up to stalk closer to them. The hybrid paced alongside the glass just like a big cat. Owen was reminded of a lion he'd seen at a zoo as a child. The way her shoulders rolled with each steady, measured step belied the incredible power she no doubt wielded.
The hybrid didn't stop as she reached them and just offered the two humans a lazy glance. This close, Owen realized her shoulders were well over four feet off the ground, and he estimated she was nearly eighteen feet long from nose to tail tip. Between the long torso and powerful tail, he was seeing an animal built for climbing and pouncing.
His eyes watched the Gorgosuchus as she peeled away from the glass and made her way to the wall on the left side of her habitat. With contemptuous ease, the reptile crouched and then leapt to one of the ledges that was easily twenty feet off the ground. Her short claws dug into the rock to get a grip, and then she was stalking along the ledge to lay on an outcropping high above the pool, which was shaded by huge palm fronds.
Even the way she lay down was like a big cat, with her front paws crossed over one another and back legs splayed out to the side behind her. The tail tip draped over the edge of the outcrop as the hybrid set her head down to rest, letting out another snort as she got herself settled.
Owen pursed his lips. He was seeing an animal that was quite comfortable in her environment, which was a plus in his book. The habitat was huge, giving her plenty of space to run around and climb, as well as providing the hybrid with places to escape the guests if she got tired of them. The glass and steel dome above her enclosure was thick and high enough that he wasn't concerned about her somehow smashing her way through it.
Yes, he liked what he was seeing so far.
Claire was waiting somewhat anxiously as he processed everything for a few minutes. He eventually nodded to himself slowly. "Her habitat looks pretty good. The design is solid and she's got a lot of space. The only thing I can really think of is social stuff. Is she a social animal?"
"No," she replied. "Her behavior is a lot more like Kaprosuchus than Gorgosaurus. She has territorial tendencies, but nothing familial. She's very much so a solitary predator."
"Ok," Owen chewed on that information before flashing Claire a grin. "Then I think we're good. Anything else to go over, boss?"
She gave him a dry look, but smiled anyways. "Just little details, but I can handle those myself. Let's take a walk, shall we?"
"After you," Owen responded playfully, following Claire away from the Gorgosuchus enclosure and to a different section of the Hybrid Dome.
Lifting her head slightly, the sharp eyes of the Gorgosuchus watched them go. She let out a deep, rumbling hiss as she was, at last, rid of human presence for the time being.
Good riddance.
A/N: Geez, I need to do these more. Anyways, this was our second marine species (and with this series, that basically means any aquatic/semi-aquatic animal that isn't a dinosaur) for Hybrid Theory, so the next entry will be a pterosaur! Give me your thoughts on which pterosaur hybrid should take the spotlight in the next chapter!
As ever, please review and thanks for reading!
